Cordavision Music Reviews

Honestly, if you’re heart is quite literally glowing, you might have to see a doctor. Okay, hi. It’s been a hot minute. I’m gonna be more consistent with the reviews and do a little catch-up with some other albums I’ve heard, but this is one I’ve sat on for a while. Weyes Blood has been an artist that I’ve fallen in love with. I know I’m not the only one thinking that her last album, 2019’s Titanic Rising , is probably a contender for the best indie rock album of the 2010s. I think it’s a landmark album that set the bar for indie rock/singer-songwriter albums for this decade. Now, we have something that could match the quality of that: Weyes Blood’s next album. And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow dropped last month, and I’ve had a good amount of time to sit on it. Let’s get into how I felt about it. The reason why I’ve had to take some time with this project is because I’ve had a hard time putting to words just how nice this is to listen to. This has a nostalgic, old school feeling that...

Shoutout Hivemind. Right off the bat, I’ll say that I didn’t expect this from Quadeca. The section of YouTuber-turned-musicians that are on my radar are pretty big, especially since I upload on YouTube. Of course, there’s Joji who successfully made the jump, but there are other YouTubers that happen to make music like KSI that really just don’t hit hard to me. Quadeca’s last album, From Me To You , really set up some potential for Quadeca to be a pretty successful YouTuber-to-rapper jump and I still enjoy that project today. His latest release, I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You , leans into a much more experimental and ambitious project. I plan to watch the accompanying visual album too, but it’s just been busy. So, let’s just get into it. So, if I didn’t make it obvious, this project is a whole different beast compared to the other Quadeca projects I’ve heard. This is much more of an art pop album with some alternative R&B, experimental rap, and even a little tinge of industrial thrown i...

Legitimately gorgeous cover art, by the way. It pains me that I’m late to the party when it comes to 070 Shake. Like a good amount of people, the first time I heard her was during Kanye West’s series of mini-albums in 2018, featured on both Pusha T’s DAYTONA and West’s own ye , and being a highlight on both releases. I thought her debut album Modus Vivendi was pretty nice, and I’ve been looking forward to whatever she’d do next. Looking at You Can’t Kill Me , with an oddly bone-chilling cover, I’m pretty excited about this. Let’s get into how I felt about it. We’ll start off with the production first, and even without looking at the credits, I knew Mike Dean had his hands on this. This is definitely a contender for one of the most sonically-beautiful releases of the year so far, mainly because of its very futuristic vibe and how well it blends with Shake’s vocals. Speaking of her vocals, they’re absolutely hypnotic and is the best part of the album to me. They’re very alluring and th...

Finally got some musicians to commission some work from my little cousin, she loves it! I’ve said in the past that I’m not drained, as they say. I’ve covered both Bladee and Ecco2K on this site, and out of what I’ve heard of them, I think that I prefer Ecco2K over Bladee at this point. It may be a voice thing, but the neurons fire more when I hear Ecco, especially his E and PXE projects. Even if they’ve worked together quite a bit before, this is actually the first time they’ve worked on an entire album where it’s just them two. Crest was a surprise release, so not that many expectations are tied to this. Let’s get into what I thought about it. It may not be the first time someone has said this, but I think these two work really well together. It’s genuinely scary how good they are together at times. Like the other Drain Gang projects I’ve covered, my favorite part of this album is the production. I believe the producer of this is Whitearmor, and he’s just as big of a part of why th...

Because of listening to this, I found out that ROSALÍA and Frank Ocean lived together for a bit. Let me tell you this right now: I’ve been insanely excited for this album for a while now. ROSALÍA has been on my radar for a few years, especially after her two breakout albums Los Ángeles and El mal querer . Even her collaborations with Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, and The Weeknd have all hit pretty well with me as well. Ever since MOTOMAMI was officially announced, it immediately shot to the top of my most anticipated list. Even with the rumor of Frank Ocean being a feature ending up being false, that didn’t slow down the hype for me one bit. Let’s not waste any more time and get into MOTOMAMI . In a word, this is explosive. The direction of experimental pop thrown in with reggaeton and R&B is some of the most creative music I’ve heard this decade so far. Each song is genuinely different, and especially with ROSALÍA having a hand in the production on every song, it just cements the fa...

*an obvious joke* This is a case where I was simply pulled into the album because of some good cover art, you know? I don’t know that much about Yeule, but what I do know is that Yeule is from Singapore and the stage name of Yeule is based on the Final Fantasy character. That’s pretty much if for that, and as I stated earlier, I mainly wanted to listen to Glitch Princess because I just think the cover’s sick as fuck. So, let’s just get into it. Like it says in the name, the production throughout this album is very glitchy. There’s honestly no way around saying that because it’s simply true. It’s also not often that a gorgeous voice can mesh so well with that kind of production, but it somehow does beautifully. Personally, the one thing that didn’t stick out to me too well was the writing, but since I’ve heard others praise the writing so much, that could change for me at some point since I’ve been listening to this on repeat for a little bit now. Also, as a fun treat for the digital ...

Why is everyone saying this is called Laurel Hell ? I’m definitely seeing Yanny Hell over here. Mitski has been an artist that has just been a little cool for me for a while. Yes, I adore Bury Me at Makeout Creek , Puberty 2 , and Be the Cowboy , but I’ve never really thought of Mitski as an artist I tend to go back to as often as some other artists I like. However, there seems to be a divide with this new project of hers, Laurel Hell . This is mainly coming from the sonic direction of the album, which includes more electronics and a whole lot of synthesizers. Either way, the singles from this intrigued me, so let’s not waste any more time and get into Laurel Hell . Look, let’s just get started with the positives. I think, as always, her vocals shine through quite a bit through the new sound and this new combo works surprisingly well. Even with the more synthesized production choices, it feels just a tiny bit forced. I'm sure that Mitski wanted this albums’s sound to go in this di...

kiCK iiiii concludes Arca Week on a very luscious note. Okay, after hearing the major differences between KicK iii and iiii , I honestly had no idea what to expect for the final entry in the KiCK series, and boy was I wrong. This is essentially a modern classical album done by an electronic music producer. It’s certainly something I’ve never heard of, but it’s a welcome one. Like the last one, there’s a lot of ambient references too. Arcambient? Let’s go with that. It’s mainly instrumental pieces, and I honestly don’t know how else to explain it. It acts as a very fitting conclusion and a very fitting end to an ambitious project. Conclusion: On the day of the final album’s release, Arca put out a statement about the release of the series. Part of it read ‘For me it is a cycle, like most phenomena in the universe. A prenatal KiCk is the first undeniable evidence that there exists an individual with an expression distinct from one’s mother and father. through this kick, this gesture o...

Arca Week rounds third base with kick iiii , if that analogy even works in this context. After KicK iii being the most abrasive and experimental of the bunch so far, kick iiii certainly distances itself from that. iiii is certainly the most relaxed of the bunch, with much more ambient and pop influences throughout it. Even though there are vocals on here, it feels like each aspect is like instruments playing with one another. There’s been controversy with this one about this being the weakest because of this, along with the demo-like qualities of this installment in general, but that’s actually why I like it so much. It feels like an ever-evolving live set, and I think it’s a welcome change in this series so far. I’ve also found out that this is a great album to do work to or study to, as I have finals this week and it’s been a pretty calming album to listen to. Overall, kick iiii is a come-down from the insanity of KicK iii , but the rough-around-the-edges qualities of iiii set i...

Arca Week continues with KicK iii , where I start to feel the tiniest bit sorry for straight people. You know, as I said with KICK ii yesterday, I was kind of disappointed by it and I actually got pretty worried about the rest of this week-long trek. Luckily, in casual terms, THIS SHIT SLAPS. Holy christ, man. This might be Arca’s best album. It’ll be hard to top this one. Even though I had said that KICK ii was experimental, that might as well be top 40 pop compared to this. It’s so loud and abrasive that it could honestly pass as a harsh noise outside of an electronic album. Along with that, she’s rapping on this. Like, rapping on it incredibly well. My personal favorite track has to be the instrumental “Fiera,” which genuinely might be one of my favorite songs of the year right now. It’s genuinely psychedelic and if you’re not into this kind of music, it will be very VERY hard for you to get into it. If KICK ii was the countdown, KicK iii is the explosion. This is truly incredib...

Arca Week starts today! Tuesday-Friday will cover all four new KICK albums, and I will give my ratings on each album on Friday. Let’s start with KICK ii , the first album to my knowledge that samples Among Us . This is gonna be the only review with an intro, so I’ll just get it out of the way now. Arca is one of the most creative producers working right now. I could honestly go on and on about how many new sounds I’ve heard from her, but that would take forever. The first album in this series, KiCk i , catapulted her into worldwide fame, even getting the chance to work with artists like Frank Ocean and Lady Gaga. Now, in a new experiment specifically to torment my review schedule, Arca has released FOUR NEW ALBUMS in the KICK series. I’ll be covering them one at a time and ranking them on Friday. So, let’s get into KICK ii . In her past albums, there were hints of experimental reggaeton and I enjoyed the little bits of that sound, but here, she goes all in on this sound. Oddly enough...